And have a lot of fun doing it? I would say that I have never been offered that opportunity in my 44 glorious years on this Earth. Or is it that the offer just wasn’t as obvious as this one?

There’s no guess work involved here; no back-handed, slight of hand marketing techniques. Just plain, simple, save the world one pet peeve at a time stuff. I’m talking about a Book, with Celebrity as well as regular fold contributors.

So you wanna help AND be a part of something as big as the Chicken Soup Series (just imagine getting in with Mark Victor Hansen from the beginning)? This thing’s going viral.

There are two (3) ways to contribute:

1) Submit a peeve right here on this blog. The Peeve’s with the highest votes go in the book for the world to see. Sorry but you don’t get any money for your efforts.

100% of the profits from the book go to charity.

2) Spread the word about the project by twittering, facebooking, digging, or just good old fashioned cut and paste a link to get the word out networking. Every effort will make a difference…….

3) Post a rebuttal. I’m sure it won’t make sense but go for it.

And just how do we Save The World with Pet Peeve’s?

Well there is a good reason that I chose the specific charity that I did. One big reason is that it will allow us to Save The World one person at a time by significantly increasing the number of people working on the solutions to our biggest problems.

You see, an amazing 17% of the United States is illiterate! And its not that those people don’t have the capacity to do amazing things, it’s just that many of them didn’t have the same opportunities as the other 83%. An interesting fact is that the person who is attributed with the highest IQ in the world currently is by most standards, a loser. It is not enough that he has intelligence higher than Einstein’s, he didn’t have the opportunities in school that challenged him appropriately nor did he have parents with the resources to recognize his potential. Just imagine if that IQ was channeled towards finding an alternative energy sourceor curing cancer? And just imagine if we had an additional 17% of our population to draw from to look for solutions…..think of the possibilities. Think of the solutions that could come from a completely diverse population of people and the different solutions that would follow. And that’s why I chose a charity that is working towards taking the 83% and making it 100%.Think of our current population of solution providers a different way. Think of them as an incestuous group. A group that comes from similar ideals and backgrounds. Similar educational up-bringing and backgrounds yield similar results.

I was talking to my 11 yr old while we were watching the Olympics this summer and he asked about the people competing. I said that they were the best people who were doing what they were doing at this time. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t people in the world who don’t have the capability to be even better than the current Olympians. But most people never have the opportunity to develop the natural physical skills that they have. And that is perfectly analogous to our academic situation. I’m not going to beat a dead horse here; if you want all the back up data in the world about this, I encourage you to read Outliers, The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell.

I truly believe that the “best” people are not necessarily working on our toughest problems. I think that the best people in our current pool of talent is probably working on our problems.

Let’s fill the pool with allot more swimmers!

The Ron Clark Academy is working on filling that pool as we speak. But he needs allot of help. Think of the OCEAN being 17% below its full pool and trying to fill it up. That’s the challenge we face. It is a monumental challenge.

100% of the Profits from the book will go to The Ron Clark Academy

So why Pet Peeve’s? Why not? Hey its fun and its ironic that the contributors to the book are highly successful and optimistic people. And even though solving these “peeves” will not likely change the world all by them self, on some level we all feel like getting these little problems out of the way, will somehow clear the path so that we can get serious about the real problems. And that makes for a light hearted solution; one that will be easy for your to spread. So get to spreadin’ the word! And besides, we are doing a service to humanity to by giving a bunch of ignorant people A CLUE and making the rest of the world a better place to live (see I told you we were going to be Saving the World).

So what does a “Pet Peeve” look like and what are the rules?

I’m glad you asked because there ARE rules. In order for your contribution to count, your “peeve”
has to have the follow qualities*:

5)Your example should be funny (enough said, this isn’t a masterpiece, its entertainment) and give a reason people should change:why? Look if we just list the Pet Peeves without the lesson then we are never going to change the world. People will just get defensive. They won’t listen and worse off they will likely rebel.And that would be bad because at least before, these people were just ignorant. But if they know you have a mission to fulfill….oh that would be bad. My quest to make the world a better place one peeve at a time would back-fire! It would be Pet Peeve Jihad. So please, no rhyme without the reason, no ying without the yang

6)You peeve should include a rebuttal (hey its only fair to give these losers a one line)

*Don’t sweat it if you can’t meet all 6 of the guidelines. There will be excellent editors who actually have writing talent and will be able to touch up your entry.
BUT the more information you leave out the more difficult it will be for people to vote your entry as a winner.

Here’s an example of a “Pet Peeve”(hint, they are nothing like Pet Rocks, these are minor annoyances that we live with every day)

1)State your Peeve:people who back into parking spaces

2)Category:driving

3)Catch Phrase with Acronym: back parkers, beeps (explanation below)

4) and 5) RealLife Example:

I was driving with my buddy Mark going to a movie at the Biltmore in Phoenix when we were talking about pet peeves. Just as he was committing act #1. Can you believe it? Yes I let him have it and the world is a little better because of it. As I thought, he just didn’t know…

The reason for the backing in thing is this: Imagine you are following a Back Parker (official name). Or you call them beeps (you know, short for the b and p in Back Parker that also doubles for an expletive cover up. My kids are aware of cuss words because I’m one of those evil parents who actually exposes them to the world rather than sheltering them from it. I would rather them find out around me than a bunch of drunk idiots. Anyway when the kids want to repeat something they have heard and it contains an expletive, they just substitute beep; because they know it’s not a positive message to the world (they watch My Name Is Earl and know all about karma, who needs Buddha anyway?) to cuss. So when you see a Back Parker feel free to just yell out a good solid “BEEP”! So you’re following this ‘beep’ and you have no idea what they’re doing ‘cause you lost your mind reading abilities just after puberty ended. You don’t know if this person is leaving the mall or just coming in or waiting in the isle for their spouse to return. But they pull past the parking space you see open. You’re right on their tail, but not close enough to be a tail-gaiter, (better known as a teeg) but just close enough to let the mall monger coming the other direction that you have dibs on the spot (come on you know that’s exactly what you’re thinking). Your heart is pounding because you’re going to win the coveted spot that you can now taste and you know has to be much better than the one on the next isle over.

The feeling of anticipation runs through you and nothing else in the world matters until your quest for perfect parking culminates in you pulling into that very spot.

And then just as you begin to turn the wheel ever so slightly in continued conquest over the “other direction” challenger, it happens. You know what I’m talking about. “Beep”, you shout! The SUV ahead of you has stopped, put their inferior auto in reverse so they can light up their lack of respect and they are leaning with one arm over the seat and looking at you in preparation to Back Park. And somehow I think these beeps really believe that the other people in the isle, on both sides, actually know what they were planning all along. So now I have to back up and wait. Because it takes forever for them to back their car in the spot and I can’t even get around them and get the spot that was vacated while I waited 20 minutes for the Back Parker to do their selfish deed. Why? Because the mall monger from the other side of the isle got the spot and all the satisfaction.

And What’s The real truth? Back parkers everywhere hear this. We don’t know what the beep you’re doing and when we finally realize it, you block the whole isle and take forever. So next time go to the gym, and park as far away as possible. I’m sure you could use the extra exercise anyway.

Rebuttal: confessions of a Back Parker (pending)

There you have it! Ready to contribute but you just can’t think of a Peeve to get you going? Here are a few options. You just need to supply the passion:

1) Butt Flickers–ignorant people who flick their cigarette butts all over the world like it is their ashtray and start forest fires etc etc.

2) Tail Gaiters–come on folks do you really think you going to get there quicker by getting that much closer to my bumper?

3)Stupid People Breeders—why is it that people on Jerry Springer have so many more children than the average family? Should there be an IQ test?

4)Open Coughers—if you want to hack up a lung, keep your germs to yourself. Cover your mouth you idiot, you are responsible for millions of dollars in lost work due to illness and probably the cause of our health care issues in America.

Okay you get the picture. Now one last detail. Entries submitted on this blog will be ranked based on public vote. For the final product, public entries will be combined with Celebrity entries.

Lost 1.5 Pounds–New weight 202.5 from 209—-6.5 pounds in 3 days—-and not hungry and feel GREAT.

Exercise: 1 hour swim in the am from 7 to 8 while you were still sleeping on a Saturday morning! I was very tired from the day before and used fins to keep up with everyone–oops then everyone got to use fins adn I was in trouble. Helped a buddy cut up a white oak tree for most of the day and I’m sore today from it (we cut it and chopped it). So that was alot more exercise than I planned on today but changing things up is a really good idea. Not to mention I had a great time hanging out with a couple of friends, his dogs and horses. Not to mention my firewood pile is once again full. I love the smell of fresh cut wood.

Breakfast:My regular shake. An important part of losing weight is changing things up–not only your exercise but your diet (your body gets complacent easily). But honestly I can eat this shake as one of my meals every day. But I put different frozen fruits in and so it does give it different textures and tastes to keep it interesting.

Snack: You see that I have snacks every day–at least two, if not three times a day. That’s critical. If you let yourself get too hungry then you will overeat on the bad stuff later on. So I had about a cup of nuts and about an ounce of beef jerky. I had to plan ahead and take this snack with me since I knew I would be cutting down a tree and would not have my regular food supplies. Planning is one of the biggest factors in losing weight (or getting anything accomplished).

Lunch: 6 inch turkey and cheese sub from Subway–hey Jared knows what he is talking about. Whenever you have the opportunity to put what equates to a salad on your sandwich, that’s a good thing. No mayo of course–if you don’t have it for a while you will think it is disgusting. Because it is. Mustard may take some getting used to by some people but once you do you will realize that it is not only added flavor, but has essentially no bad calories. And a large diet coke! Yum–this really is dessert. Look at it this way, if you were stuck in the middle of a dessert for a week with nothing to eat or drink, the first thing you would want is a glass of water. So what we crave is all relative. If you get rid of the nasty stuff you have been eating—you will stop craving it and actually realize that it is nasty when you go back and try it later on. I have a huge sweet tooth but I think regular Coke is disgusting now that I am used to Diet Coke (I used to be hooked on regular Coke).

Snack: a few more nuts and beef jerky and a hard boiled egg–cause we didn’t eat until late.

Dinner: a burrito bowl from Chipotle. Yes I cheated on the “white” rule (nothing white) by getting white rice and cheese instead of salad in my bowl. But to be honest, I know i needed the calories and probably the carbs and I had waited too long to eat (had I had a healthy snack with me I would have been able to resist the rice).

Snack—no after dinner snack since it was so late and I was feeling pretty full from the Burrito bowl. Even though it is grilled chicken and salsa (a very good food) that dinner was still probably packed with a ton of calories and not all good ones. But if your hungry–you should eat–just make it something good.

Exercise: because I got up at 5:30 and started my day that way. That’s just what you have to do to accomplish your goals. I went to Master’s swim practice–where I am by far the slowest person in the pool many times. That’s okay–I’m faster than all the people laying in bed! I think we did about 4000 yards. A pretty tough workout actually, I was tired.

Breakfast: 1/2 cup of Blueberries again with 1/2 cup of Steel cut oatmeal and 1 tablespoon flaxseed. Because I worked out hard I added a half scoop of protein powder–this is fortified like a multi-vitamin.

Whatever you do when you are cutting calories. DONT over do it–your body will fight back and you will over eat later.

Snack: Banana and a large glass of water

Lunch: 6 inch ultimate sub on 5 grain bread from Publix. I had lettuce, tomato, green peppers and spicy mustard. This is a real treat and fills me up pretty well. Its a complete meal with bread, veggies, cheese and meat.I went crazy with a large diet coke. This is like dessert to me….

Snack: Sardines. Ohh Suzanne hates the smell but they are awesome for you. One of the cleanest fishes and best sources of Omega 3’s fatty oils. Fat is good as long as it is good fat.

Okay, first day down. 3 pounds lost and Caleb is not too happy. Goal for this week was just 3 pounds. At this rate I’ll be done by the end of the week but I know the losses don’t keep up at this pace….

So here’s how I did it. First of all I won’t say “diet”–oops I just said it! For me it’s always just being a consistently better, healthier eater. I call it “clean” eating.

Like everyone I need plenty of accountability. So here goes my 2009 goals–well some of them–in public for everyone to see and keep me foucused.

These are mostly personal as I haven’t yet set my professional goals with the powers that be–although I do have a good idea what I want to accomplish. I’ll give you a taste of my professional goals–just not the whole enchilada.

1) Lose 19 pounds by February 14th 2009. Remember that goals need to be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time Bound. Yep I meet all those so I’m good to go. Why 19 pounds you ask? I’m starting at 209 pounds so that puts me at 190 and below the “fat guy” label on the BMI scale by a couple of pounds. I have hovered around 200 for the past couple of years but I haven’t been able to get below it and stay there. So this is big deal for me. I also bet Caleb (my 11 year old) who said he didn’t think I could do it. Caden (7 year old) is on my side and also bet Caleb 5 bucks that I would make it. So I spread out my risk and Caleb is on the hook for 10 big ones.

2) Complete a half Ironman Triathlon. One of the reasons for for goal #1 is to prep me for #2. My body will be really pissed at me if I attempt a half Ironman without losing weight. And at that weight I will actually enjoy it. I also plan to do at least one Century this year but that’s not much of a goal after doing 6 GAP and 3 State 3 Mountain with very little training. Just fun stuff and I hope that Caleb will join me in a triathlon or two. He loves the idea of competing but he is not so keen on the training. In the past with shorter events he could get away with not training but a half marathon or more is something he needs to prepare himself for.

3) Build a continuity website and have it up and running with shopping cart and marketing sequences byFeb 28th. This is a personal and professional goal. The personal side of it will enable me to help more small businesses grow their business. And that helps me at work. That’s why Infusionsoft is such a great place to work. They know that encouraging us to use the application will ultimately make us great at helping other people. And besides, it’s such a great place to work that even if I get my own site up and making money I still want to keep working with Infusionsoft in everyway I can. I really believe in what the company is doing.

4) By January 30th I want the foundation and one layer of wall started for the new stone house in the backyard. I want the kids to be able to help build it, stone by stone, so they can always have the pride of completing a project like that. They did help build the stacked stone firepit and flagstone patio but they were really too yound to remember it. I’m not concerned about putting a finish date on the stone house, the process and productive time with the kids is going to be unforgetable for all of us.

That’s enough, life is pretty great and we’re all healthy. Happy New Year